Little Talks
by Lady of Termina
Summary: It was like, as corny as it was, they were soul mates. Not of the romantic kind.


Disclaimer: I do not own _The Legend of Korra._

* * *

_Is it even worth it anymore?_

Korra crossed her arms tighter across her torso, attempting to fight off the chill of the evening. Winter was steadily winding down; the other day she had found the beginnings of a pink flower on one of the trees, fighting to grow despite the freezing temperature. The nights on Air Temple Island, however, were still as cold as they were in the wintry months of the year, and she was beginning to seriously regret not bringing out her jacket.

And any fire she produced would just attract unnecessary attention.

She was well aware that the other occupants of the island were searching for her, much like they had done before they had gone hunting for the Equalists themselves. Bolin's voice was, naturally, the loudest and, seemingly, the most concerned—it echoed off the nude, grey trees and came reverberating back to her, disturbing the semblance of quiet she had found for herself in this secluded part of the forest. _I'm here!_ She wanted to scream back. _I just don't want to talk to any of you!_

Least of all Mako.

The first time she had ever laid eyes on the young Firebender she had felt an immediate and intense attraction. The way he carried himself was so mature, so different from the boys who had lived at the South Pole, none of whom she had ever felt any type of pull towards. He was mysterious, too; he had come off as something of a jerk, all cool and uncaring, but she had readily ignored it, hoping to unravel his secrets and win him over for herself, idealizing the type of love and understanding Katara had described to her as an eager child, sitting on the living room floor of her mentor's home with a steaming cup of jasmine tea nestled in her miniscule hands.

But instead, he had fallen for Asami Sato—a girl who had both the money and the looks to have boys fall all over her at the drop of a hat.

_I'm the Avatar!_She had thought, irrationally and, later on, ashamedly. It was wrong to use her title to try to impress a boy, but she had just wanted to punch the wall repeatedly until it crumbled after she had found out about the two of them being a couple. This girl had just tripped into Mako's life, asked him out to dinner out of the blue, and then they were a couple. Just like that. Korra had suffered to get him to say three nice words to her, and even then she wasn't sure if they qualified as friends. She agonized over it privately, trying to breathe some type of meaning into the way Mako would shut her down completely when she was nothing but nice.

And then she had kissed him. She winced as she recalled the feel of his lips against hers, at first warm and receptive and then cold and unforgiving as steel as he shut himself off and disentangled himself from her, the loud sniffles from Bolin making her clench her vivid blue eyes shut and scrub at them madly, trying to erase the memory from her eyelids.

_I am so, so sorry, _she had whispered to him afterwards, two nights later. Stupidly, she stretched out a trembling hand before retracting it, already regretting her little slip. It was on a night much like the one where she sat alone, and the two were sitting on the steps of the arena with the wind caressing their hair and nipping at their noses.

_It's okay, Korra,_ he had said easily. _There's nothing to be sorry for!_

_Bolin…_

_Now, now! _The Earthbender spread apart his large hands, palms out to his friend. He was grinning that goofy, got-nothing-to-hide smile at her, and the corners of her mouth turned up in spite of herself. _It's fine, Korra. Really. I'm… not really all that surprised. _He smiled, scratching his neck._ Mako's a good-looking guy, and I don't blame you._

Of course she had felt terrible and kind of nauseous at the way he so easily dismissed himself, even if it hadn't been Bolin's intent for her to. Bolin was a good guy and an even better friend, and she had trampled all over his heart like a blind buffalo yak in a porcelain shop. She still felt the dogged need to confide her every little secret in him, invariably damaging his heart even more, but he insisted that it was "just peachy". "That's what friends are for, Korra."

For someone to take advantage of?

"You know, I never really had many friends in the South Pole. Except for Katara. But she was more like my grandmother than anything else.

"I…I think that's why I've had so much trouble adapting to things up here. Getting along with people my own age, that sort of thing."

"Nah, everyone's like that. We're kids! Do you know how hard it is to relate to other people?"

They had laughed, and she felt the stirrings of something deeper, stronger in her heart. She couldn't be with him romantically, oh no; Bolin was a sweetheart, hopelessly naïve at times, yes, but still a good kid. It was like, as corny as it was, they were soul mates. Not of the romantic kind, but she felt like she could just sit and talk to him forever, and that would be enough for her. His perception of the world was utterly foreign to her, and therefore, fascinating. But she couldn't tie herself to someone like him—she needed a person just as headstrong, just as testy, and she always fell back to the same person as before: Mako.

He and Asami had broken up before the Equalists waged war on Republic City. _I'm tired of playing second to Korra,_ the non-bender had told him softly. There was no trace of anger in her feminine voice; if anything, it was resignation that came through loud and clear as Bolin and Korra squatted in a nearby bush with prickly foliage, straining to hear over the sound of each other's heartbeats. Mako had reacted as anyone would assume. He was clearly hurt and tugged on her hand quite a few times, but in the end she had walked solemnly to the dock, the sashay that had once characterized her gait long absent. She acted as levelheaded as ever, leaving their lives the way she had entered it, abruptly and in a flash of silky hair.

"It's my fault, isn't it?"

"Why would it possibly be your fault, Korra? You didn't break them up. She left of her own accord."

"Bolin, please. We both heard what she said."

"Well, yeah, but I don't think they ever had that much in common, Korra. Other than being beautiful, of course." He snickered, tilting his head a little to look at her, trying to gauge her reaction. She only rolled her eyes to the heavens and pressed her strong hands to her face forcefully enough so that it might bruise in a fruitless effort to squash the emotions boiling just below the surface.

"Bolin, you just let everyone off the hook. If you keep that up, people are gonna walk all over you like a doormat."

* * *

"Korra."

The teenaged Avatar didn't respond verbally; her back stiffened as the muffled crunch of the snow behind her filled the otherwise silent clearing.

"Mako, just go away. I need to think, okay?"

"No, look," the Firebender appeared in front of her, hands on his hips. She smirked to herself. She and Bolin had taken to calling him "Mama Mako" behind his back, and at times like this, she couldn't help but envision him in a frilly pink apron, a tray of cookies in his hands as he waited for his children to come home after school. "I know it's kind of soon and all, but I genuinely care for you, and you said—do you remember what you said?" He bent down so that his face was level with hers, and she couldn't restrain herself from looking dead into his gorgeous amber eyes. Mako may have been aloof when it came to the courting part of things, but when he decided what he wanted, he made it clear to everyone, including his intended.

"You said you felt like we were meant for each other. Or is that what you say to everybody?"

Her hands balled into fists in the packed snow, her fingers burning with cold. "Yeah, I did say that! But I didn't exactly think you would two-time your girlfriend, either!" she shot back, indignant at his implication and growing steadily more fed up with him and his mind games. First he wanted her, then he wanted Asami. Then he tried to hit on her while staying with Asami?

"What? I never cheated on Asami! And besides, you're the one who kissed me that night!"

"You never cheated _physically_ on Asami, but you sure did mentally! Why did she leave, Mako? Huh? It sure wasn't because Meelo was always hanging around her. I did some pretty bad stuff too, so I'll take my fair share of the blame. I did kiss you, yeah, but I didn't make it obvious to her how jealous I was. It takes two to tango, Mako, and we both know she only would've left because of _you_."

Mako hissed impatiently, jamming his hands into his pockets and scowling out to the horizon. "Just when did you become such good friends with Asami? You hated her for the longest time, and I never saw you guys doing that 'girl bonding' or whatever it is. You were just as indifferent to her as I became."

Korra shrunk under his scrutinizing gaze as he turned back to her. "Okay, it's true," she admitted lowly, eyes downcast. "But… Mako, I really admired you. I kind of built you up in my head to be this amazing person, and…"

"And what?"

"You're nothing like I imagined. And like I said earlier, I take my share of the blame in what happened. I still can't believe I treated somebody who has lost so much already like that, and I wish I could take it all back. But I can't, and the most I can say now is: you're really not worth all the grief I've put so many people through."

"How am I supposed to respond to that?"

"Just let it be. I don't have the time to be putting all my energy into somebody as wishy-washy as you, Mako. Especially not with the state the city's in currently."

* * *

Later that night she and Bolin sat on the steps of the Air Temple. The two would regularly sneak away from their respective dormitories, minding to be elusive and not wake up their fellow housemates—particularly Tenzin in Bolin's case. For whatever reason, he was petrified of the older male.

"Hey, I thought you weren't going to come tonight!" he had exclaimed in a hushed tone, wrapping his beefy arms around her. She had smiled into his broad shoulder, returning his embrace as he nearly choked her in his enthusiasm.

"So what happened?"

She recounted the tale of everything that went down between her and Mako, pausing every once and awhile as distant footsteps on the stone would make their way to their haven before fading down some other direction. When her story was finished, Bolin let out one long, low whistle.

"Wow, Korra," he muttered. "You sure don't let them down easy, do you?"

She smacked him between his shoulder blades, somewhere between playfully and seriously, shocked at his judgment. His large frame shook with laughter and he threw one arm around her, huddling closer to her. "No, I'm kidding," he said, suddenly growing morose. "I think it took real guts to own up to some of the stuff you did, and I'm proud of you. It's just…" He hesitated.

"Mako."

"He is my brother, you know. We have to look out for one another."

"You don't say! He… asked me if there was someone else."

Bolin's chest stilled, his arm becoming like a vise around her midsection, and Korra poked him, reminding him to breathe. "I told him no."

Her friend smiled crookedly, a mixture of sadness and knowledge present on his always open face. "Of course."

"I'm sorry, Bolin," she breathed, holding him closer to her, knowing that she was leading him on but unable to control herself. "I… I can't deal with all this stuff, though. There's so much more I need to focus on instead of romance right now. Amon's still spirits know where, and I_ can't even get one measly gust of air _whenever I practice Airbending!" She expounded her frustration by hammering a fist on her thigh. "It's too much pressure on top of everything else, and…"

"I understand, Korra. And, like I said…" He leaned over and pressed his face into her dark hair, the light pressure of his lips almost nonexistent and his shallow breath tickling her. She closed her eyes and sank into his warm arms, forgetting for a moment everything she had just said and wishing desperately that she could do just what she wanted: talk to him forever, never noticing the passage of time as it slipped away from them on these very same steps.

"I'm proud of you."

* * *

**End Note:** So I just want to say

That I am this magical thing called _shipping neutral_.

Seriously, though, I would love for Bolin and Korra to become like, freaking best friends who tell everything to each other. I feel like the show has been lacking in lots of things, strong interpersonal relationship being one of them, and this was kind of my way of letting that out. I'd really like to know what you think, so review if you wouldn't be too bothered.


End file.
